To mark its 85th anniversary in 2018, the MNBAQ opened five new exhibition rooms devoted to ancient and modern art. In keeping with changes in museology and society’s current perception of its heritage, the MNBAQ wishes to highlight the individuals who have shaped the history of Québec art. Visitors can follow the careers of the women and men who have made Québec what it is today, from copyists to the Automatists, from the beginnings of the market to the explosion of artistic trends. This major event will encompass over than 600 works (paintings, sculptures, the work of silversmiths and goldsmiths, furnishings, the graphic arts and photography) that propose a new perspective of several distinctive and occasionally little-known works from the MNBAQ’s collection.
5 rooms. 5 themes
BELIEVING
This room relates how various art practices emerged in the 17th century, a period dominated mainly by the importation of art works from France.
BECOMING
This room contains a collection of painted and photographic portraits of well-known men and women, and of some lesser-known or unknown individuals considered either typical of their time or class, or unique. The two trends together highlight the iconographic and stylistic diversity of the portrait genre.
Challenging
In the first half of the 20th century, challenges to an institutional academicism that had come to be seen as backward looking favoured the emergence of new cultural networks that advocated a conception of art foregrounding visual experimentation and artistic independence.
Feeling
The presentation of various technical approaches that showcase the strengths and constraints specific to each discipline in the depiction of landscape offers a complete panorama of the evolution of this major genre in the history of Québec art.
IMAGINING
In this room, visitors will see an artist’s studio—that of Napoléon Bourassa—a political space and a religious space that, taken together, show the many forms assumed by art practices associated with commemoration.
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